It is only occasionally I noticed an Indian Pond heron in our garden. Some other water birds like Egrets are regular visitors.
A pond heron is hesitant and cautious. During the visit, it stayed on the wall and did not move into the lawn. I noticed how it turned in all directions and responded to different sights and noises expressing its processing of them through the body language.
On one occasion, Daffney, noticing the bird from her yard barked, which made the Heron leave to be temporarily perched in the banana grove. I wondered whether the fluffed feathers indicated anxiety or stress!
It is when I observed the different body languages, it occurred to me that, it is similar to human behaviour.
I met a person during the morning walk who stopped me to talk to me. My first response within was a sense of suspicion. He recalled how my mother taught him at school and she was a caring teacher. He recollected an experience, when he was eight years old. I felt more comfortable to listen as he related some events in a thoughtful way.
I walked back home carrying a caught, 'why was my first response hesitant and suspicious?'
It alerted me of incidents when conversations were difficult on some occasions with some people. That got triggered in my mind, when this person stopped me to speak to me. What he intended was a pleasant recollection about my mother, but I was suspicious and anxious!
It was another occasion of getting more familiar with the resident interior thoughts, which need to be revised. How unfriendly I might have appeared initially when the person stopped to greet me!
We live with our memories. Our memory too need revision. That is how our inner consciousness can move towards being present to the new horizons of freedom, consciousness, nearness and mindfulness.
When I returned home at the end of the walk, I had a feeling of being awakened to feel the constraints within me !
I received a Christmas greeting yesterday, from a co-guide who helped me during my post doctoral research work. To have been remembered by someone after thirty five years, was more than an overwhelming experience!
There are sufficient happy memories worth treasuring! It occurred to me that I can grow in readiness to let go of the difficult experiences. The light of the enriching experiences can subsume that which was difficult!
The Christmas time is an occasion to visit the darkness within and allow the light of healing and forgiveness to brighten the interior!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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